AdSchool students takeover the innovation category at Ad Stars 2018

Ad Stars 2018, one of the world's biggest advertising festivals, attracted 20,342 entries this year. Of the 17 finalists in the innovation category for non-professionals, 8 of them are from Media Design School's AdSchool.

Started in 2008, Ad Stars promotes social good, creative solutions, openness, diversity, and foster a new paradigm within the creative field. The ultimate value of Ad Stars is ‘humanity’. They are committed to sharing creative solutions that contribute to the well-being of mankind through advertisement and communication.

This year saw 20,342 entries from 74 counties around the world. After a gruelling judging process, 1,719 works were selected as finalists within their respective categories. Among these categories was the non-professional Innovation category, which celebrates the most groundbreaking and experimental works from soon-to-be advertisers. Media Design School's AdSchool took out 8 of the 17 finalist spots for this category, ranking them as the most-nominated school worldwide in the innovation category this year.

Kate Humphries, AdSchool Programme Director, could not be more pleased for her students' success.

"NZ students have totally owned the Innovation category this year and they've done it across a wide range of global brands by really exploring how those brands can innovatively use new and emerging technology."

As well as completely dominating the professional innovation category, three of our teams from AdSchool have also been selected as finalists for the print category.

"Congratulations to Zach Hall and Clementina de Ruiter for their Gorilla Doctors campaign: Doctor or poacher?; Tyson Kinraid and Guy Trengrove, for their Gorilla Doctor's campaign, Medical Slaughter, and lastly Jake Williams and Lily Macintosh for DIY First Aid for St. John's, a print campaign that encourage DIY enthusiasts to keep a first aid kit in their homes, so they can DIY themselves when the need arises, as it invariably does when you're a keen exponent of the hammer, the nail and the saw."

The winners of Ad Stars 2018 will be announced at the 11th Ad Stars festival, a three-day festival of ideas and creativity that runs later this year, from 23 - 25 August. For more information, please visit adstars.org.

If you are interested in Media Design School's AdSchool, which had a 100% employment rate for 2017 (employed within 6 months of graduating), please click here. AdSchool is one of New Zealand's most nationally and internationally awarded creative advertising schools, which thrusts you right into the industry, whether you are wanting to become a Copywriter, Art Director, or anything in-between.